DMM Retail Industry e-News Issue #150
The “Retail Apocalypse” – it’s Not Coming and Didn’t Happen
Malls in Ohio are getting creative and attracting smaller retailers to move into spaces vacated by larger retailers. The $350 million Liberty Center shopping center is adding iFLY Indoor Skydiving, which is being counted on to draw greater crowds to the shopping, dining and entertainment destination. The Journal-News recently reported other area malls saw boots last year of 304% and increased consumer confidence, and they’ve been evolving to meet the needs of their specific communities. “The so-called retail apocalypse is not coming and I don’t think ever really did come to fruition. I actually think we’re seeing a resurgence of brick-and-mortar,” said Alex Boehnke, manager of public affairs for Ohio Council of Retail Merchants. Other area malls are replacing ice cream parlors with health clubs, and in some cases, chains are being replaced by locally-owned shops.
Sleep-away Camp, Tennis Camp, and…Retail Camp?
Most of us probably have memories of summer camp – sleep-away or day camps – or a specialty camp of some type: tennis, golf, swimming, baseball, etc. At the very least, many of us can dial up this classic, this horror classic, or (heaven help us all) this. But now there’s a retailer called “Camp” and they’ve pitched their tent, in a manner of speaking, in New York City. As WWD recently reported, themes in the stores, which look like a scaled down version of a summer camp, rotate every 8-12 weeks and of course, there’s lots of stuff to purchase. The folks who brought you the online news site Buzzfeed are among the financial backers here. “Families need places to go together. We created four walls with food, play and things. We intend to open a lot of these. We hope we can build a big [chain]. The market for family experiences is pretty thin right now and we’re filling a big void. There are babies being born all over the world and families looking for places to go,” said Ben Kaufman, chief commerce officer at BuzzFeed.
The Robots are Coming, and They’re Helping Retail
Your friendly e-newsletter editor comes from a varied journalism background. Having written for radio, television, magazines and blogs, he has covered all sorts of stories from horrible natural and man-made disasters to parades and Girl Scout cookie sales. But when, as a youth, he was admittedly fearful of this, and these, he can promise you that even as an adult he (but probably no one else) would have to think twice about approaching this without backup. The Giant Food Stores chain will be adding these helpful robots to all their stores by mid-year. “Shoppers might mistake them for a novelty but the robots are designed to improve in-store efficiencies and free up employees to better serve customers. They move around unassisted and identify hazards, such as liquid, powder and bulk food-items spills and report accurate price checks,” Giant told PennLive.com.
DMM Fun-Facts
DMM/ShoppingCenters.com currently boasts 8,451 major shopping centers with more than 3.6 billion sq. ft. of retail space. Tenant listings are now at 317,535 stores and we’ve got 35,600 primary shopping center and malls contacts. DMM’s data is presented and organized in a way that makes the most sense for you and your business. Plus, we’ll soon be deploying the January release of the custom datasets. To be the first to get the news, follow us on Twitter.
DMM e-News - Issue #150
